'Barbarian' pushes horror movie envelope with a rental nightmare

HOLLYWOOD -- If you like your movies creepy, there's a new one hitting theaters this weekend that definitely qualifies!

It's called "Barbarian."

In it, a young woman traveling for a job interview books a rental place in Detroit. When she arrives, she finds out someone's already there. It's been double-booked. With nowhere else to go, she reluctantly agrees to spend the night. Let's just say from that point on, being in this house becomes a nightmare. While watching the film, I wrote down, "This is some nasty, messed up stuff here."

"Okay, I'll take it. I know you're not wrong," said writer-director Zach Cregger, "I mean, because it's fun to see something you've never seen before. And I, you know, horror should push the envelope. It should be edgy. And it should, it should make us shocked. And I think it's OK, in certain genres, to be a provocateur. So I'm happy to provoke."

Justin Long, who's normally known for more comedic work, is along for the creepiness.

"Zach took a lot of those familiar tropes and horror clichés and he just totally turned them on their heads, you know, so it's a fun ride," he said.

For instance, in horror film, you're not supposed to go into the basement. In "Barbarian," there's a sub-basement and you don't belong there either!

"I mean, that's what you want though, isn't it, when you're in a horror?" asked leading lady Georgina Campbell. "You want everyone to be screaming at the screen telling them not to do it."

"It's been fun watching it with horror fans because they all sort of think they know what's going to happen and they're anticipating certain things. And then he just throws these wild, wild curveballs. It's messed up stuff," Long said.

"Barbarian" is rated R. It's only in theaters beginning Friday.